Resurfacing Lock Road (and others)

There was a splurge of road resurfacing over the Summer and one of the beneficiaries of this was Lock Road which has also benefitted from new pavements recently. In both cases I felt that there were more deserving cases.

More flowers

Ham takes Britain in Bloom seriously and this year, trying to build on the success of last year more flowers have arrived in substantial planters across the area. This one is on Petersham Road, as the distinctive wavy wall behind shows.

A more prominent planter is on Ham Parade. I can understand the reasoning but I think that putting it in front of the noticeboard is a little unfortunate as it makes that harder to approach.

56

I like house numbers, which is why they keep appearing in this blog. This one on Ham Common demanded my attention for several obvious reasons; the white background made the numbers as readable as they should be, the wall behind is lovely and the freshly brown leaves add the finishing touch.

Another large job

I think this is New Road but the exact location is not important. I took the picture for the rich combination of white wall, grey scaffold polls and bright blue sheeting. Add to that a few bricks, a couple of signs, some planks and even a touch of greenery and suddenly the picture is full of interesting things to look at. 

New signs at Ham House

The entrance to Ham House on Ham Street has some stylish and very readable signs. Their wooden frames are attractive too.

Finishing off in Sudbrook Gardens

The rebuilding of the house at the end of Sudbrook Gardens is almost complete and it taken it final, rather bland, shape. The central brick section is nice but the rest of the house is too plain and the windows are too small. Spreading the brick across the lower level would have helped.

The roadside appearance looks better as the growing brick wall breaks up the expanse of plain render.

Taylors has moved (slightly)

Taylors has moved, as their old window makes clear. It was on the little spur of Ham Parade that leads onto Tudor Drive and so was a relatively out of the way and it could not have helped being stuck between the dead frontages of a bookies and an estate agent.

Despite that it was always the place that I went for my champagne and gin.

Now I will have to to go their new shop which is firmly in the middle of the main part of the parade on the west side. I took this photo a while ago, just as they had moved in, and the shop looks a lot better now with the shop window filled with bottles.

The new brighter sign looks better too.

Interesting boats by the lock

One of the many nice things about the river around Teddington Lock is that you can often see industrial boats there, that is boats with jobs to do other than carrying people for pleasure. Boats with functions and designed for those functions and so have interesting shapes and interesting things on board.

The are remains of a name on the side of this one that say something like "Marphy Engineers", with their old 01 telephone number, but wear, sun and water have made it barely readable.

Starting work on Orford Place

What was St Michaels Convent is being transformed in to Orford Place, "a collection of 23 elegant, new and beautifully-converted houses and apartments, set in three acres of mature gardens exclusively for the over 55s."

The work is starting in the south-east corner and it will be interesting to see how it turns out. I will be back regularly to see.